LOC head Vitaly Mutko said last year the tournament will be played in 12 stadiums located in 11 cities.

Moscow will have two venues: the 90,000-seat Luzhniki stadium, which will stage the final, and another to be chosen from two 45,000-seat arenas that are being built by the Spartak and Dynamo clubs.

LOC would not reveal the outsiders but most experts say the two cities likely to be cut are Saransk, which has the smallest venue, and Yekaterinburg, located at the foot of the Ural mountains near the Europe-Asia border, approximately 1,800 kilometres from Moscow.

Russia beat England and joint bids from Spain-Portugal and Belgium-Netherlands in December 2010 to win the right to stage the 32-team competition.